stormflora

@OtherEric I'm on a roll. Might as well just go through the entire rare Whitman list and see what's being sold for cheap.

I've been blocked by a few eBay comic stores just for inquiring about having a discount via combined shipping, since I live in Canada. Apparently, they don't have the time to waste their breath on normal folk who just want to save some money. But what bothers me more is eBay not informing me that I've been blocked, and not removing all of their listings from my searches. It's just so stupid.

Or just keep selling one every 2-3 months to eliminate suspicions of oversupply and end up with a $280-420K yearly income. Retire happy

Well... It's time for Comic Wars: The Return of the Scribble. It's going to be a frustrating yet funny experience having to deal with this one as well.

Emphasis on the "When that recovery kicks in"

Yeah, it's quite possible that this is a dollar bin sale or old stock liquidation. But on a platform like eBay? Felt more like "I can't be bothered to check the price and I need the space so I'll just list it cheap and get rid of it quickly." The Whitman publication gap is a bit of esoteric knowledge, so I can't blame people for not knowing about it. It's not too well-documented on the Internet either, as only a handful of sites talk about it in detail. Gold Key/Whitman itself isn't super popular as it mostly focused on non-superhero stuff back in the day, and most comic book sellers are superhero-oriented. Some people/companies gobble up large estate/liquidation lots to sell and come across these random issues that they don't know much about, and since it would cost them more in time and labour to categorize and sort them, they price it similarly to other issues in the series that they priced them at, figuring it wouldn't be much different. The only key issues that tend to be worth their time with unfamiliar series are usually #1's, since those are always going to be in high demand. Or maybe Golden Age vintage (primarily Dell). Edit: I just looked through the seller's listings, and it seems that they are a comic seller, but most of their Gold Key/Whitman are priced similarly. So my suspicions were probably correct: they don't value Western all that much and are just quickly liquidating them.

My heart legit skipped a beat for a second. I just casually did a search for #330, and it popped right up. @bellrules Praise the Sun.

Ah, it's a subscription-based site. That's unfortunate. (I'm just a newbie to collection and am running under a budget.) Would you say that PriceCharting.com is any good? It's free and seems to keep track of sold eBay listings to offer an average of what is to be expected from most comics and issues.

Economists have indeed discovered that the recoveries after a slump tend to be strong. That's why huge investors make profit projections for years in the future instead of merely months.

Nice. You planning to keep it for your collection, or are you letting it appreciate over time? Also, what site did you use for that information? And thanks for the tidbit about the restoration. Gives me a good idea for what is considered acceptable. I think transparent paper tape would fly undetected, in that case, as it would act more like a library tape restoration.

This. It's all about awareness and exposure. Obviously, economics comes into play and the overall value of the comic would drop, but there is always the whole "tree falls in a forest" adage. Even if 10,000 file copies were suddenly found and sold, if buyers are not aware of it, they'll still think that the issue is worth the same as before. Not everyone watches every single auction sold on Heritage, and/or actively keeps up to date with comic-related news. And, if the one entity acquired the massive lot decides to shove it into a display case and not resell a single issue of it, then it still changes nothing as the market supply hasn't really changed. So, the depreciation in price could be anywhere from blazing fast to virtually none, depending on the comic and issue.

Yeah, Thanksgivings in Canada was more than a month ago I got that reference

And... For the comic-ally oblivious, how much is that worth? Also, I just realized something. The CGC note on that slab states that there's tape within, but that is not considered restoration. I wonder if using transparent paper tape on a graded comic would still make it fall under the Universal grade, or would it be marked as a Restoration grade? Just some brainstorming here. Mending with Japanese paper would likely convert it to Restoration grade, but tape might just knock the grade down a notch while still keeping it Universal grade. Maybe someone at CGC could clue in for me here.

Frankly, I feel like the "Modern Age" should already be broken up and split into periods like 1985-2000, 2000-2010, 2010+. There have been so many trend changes over the past 40 years, coinciding with the technological era.

Interesting, it seems you have a higher budget for your comic collection, in my eyes. Do you try to collect lengthy series, or just a few specific issues? Sounds very similar to my situation. Low budget per issue, especially after shipping is considered. At the moment, I'm trying very hard to stick to lots, as they provide the best value. And I've enlisted the assistance of a forwarder in America to try to keep the shipping costs lower. A single order from America requires anywhere from $20-25 CAD at the minimum, while going with the forwarder is probably going to be more like $10-15 CAD per parcel. (I'm not 100% sure right now though, as it's based on packaging labour and weighted shipping, which I'll have to find out once everything has arrived at their place.) I think the biggest peeve with buying comics on eBay has got to be the lack of communication sometimes (sellers not actively checking their messages) and not listing the exact issue number of each comic (which forces you to have to sift through cover art to try to figure out which one is which).

Darn, whoever nabbed this was lucky. Unfortunately, wasn't a user of this forum until recent. Jealous.

Yeah, that's the mindset I have as well. Most sellers are likely to be experienced enough in the field to have already screened and pulled out anything of value in those lots, leaving you wish a ton of junk to have to flip to make a little bit of profit after a lot of labour involved with all of the listings. Simply not worth the payoff. Hence, the only lots that have potential are ones that look like they're estate sales or from some ordinary joe's yard sale. Have to really screen online sellers for this sort of thing, and you're not going to encounter more than a few of them once a year, so it's not a viable long-term solution for income. I see. Yeah, it's definitely a poor return on investment. Okay for someone to have some cheap comics to read, but not if their intention is to flip it.

Interesting to see how everyone has a different take and approach to comic collecting. There's all sorts of people across the globe, I suppose. In that case, if we redirect the topic a bit: What is the single-most expensive splurge on a single issue you've made to date? If you don't mind sharing, that is. It wouldn't be fair for me not to share myself, although I'm nothing close to an enthusiast as most here. So far, the most expensive individual issues range in the $12-15 USD area, after shipping. It's not much, but when I'm buying an entire series of 100+ comics, it feels like a lot (to me) for a single issue compared to the others. Sadly, I don't have mountains of disposable income to throw at comics, so I try to stay under a budget.

Admittedly, I'm new to comic collecting, but I'd like to get an idea for what people consider to be "normal" in terms of how much they're willing to put in for each individual issue, especially in series/runs. I've just finished collecting the entire Chip 'n' Dale series (Golden Age, Silver Age, and Modern Age), at an average cost of around ~$5.80 USD per issue, after shipping. (The shipping was the worst part, not the actual comics themselves, since I live in Canada.) I've started up a Tom & Jerry collection, and although issues from Tom & Jerry Comics #60 and onwards can be acquired (with some patience) at around the same cost on average, the issues before that, Our Gang #1-59, are basically relics of the Golden Age and will cost anywhere from $10-40 USD (or more) each for generally a Good grade (before shipping). This looks a bit daunting to me, as someone expanding from a tighter budget who is concerned about damaged comics. How do you people approach your collection? Just be patient and wait for cheap copies, or maybe splurge once a month for a single issue after getting your paycheck?

Yeah, typical case of shooting oneself in the foot from speculation. The ones losing are the ones who bought slabbed comics within the last few years as investment properties to try to resell. Sunk cost fallacy is kicking in hard, and they want to at least break-even. From what I've noticed, a lot of comic stores that order new issues of comics immediately send off the NM/M copies they receive for CGC slabbing. This probably increased the supply of these high grade yet recent slabs. Is it risky? Sure. But a lot of speculators buy them anyway since they are total suckers who still think there is investment potential. The reality is, having a proper job is going to make you more in the long run than trying to bank on a comic going from $5 to $500 after a year or two. The opportunity cost is way too high. The real money is in trying to find estate liquidations and scoring old key issues for cheap.

I noticed this myself as I was trying to complete my Chip 'n' Dale collection over the past few weeks. A lot of non-key issues were a struggle to acquire because, although stock existed, they were clearly overpriced for what they were, and I was not about to subject myself to paying double to triple the actual worth of each of those issues. I ultimately had to average down the cost via means such as haggling and making a larger order with other comics, but I managed to get those difficult to acquire issues for around 30% more at most above the typical price, which was still within reason. (The real pain came from the shipping costs, but that's not totally the seller's fault.) On a side note, in Canada, the housing and rental market is absolutely outrageous right now and has been ever since we entered post-COVID. Americans might not have a grasp on what's going on over here, but in a nutshell, both housing and rental prices skyrocketed by 30-50% since 2017-2018. However, with some government intervention and oversupply, things are starting to level off as more and more people are refusing to pay exorbitant prices (and to be fair, they can't even afford to do so anyway, with the nonexistent job market and too many immigrants coming in to compete).

I wouldn't doubt that there has been an increase in comic prices. COVID really hurt everyone's finances, and gave them a reality check in focusing on what is important in life rather than impulsive buying and overoptimistic investments and speculation. I wouldn't be surprised if luxuries purchased pre-COVID as collectables are now being sold to try to recoup and regain some cash. However, naturally, people do not want to sell at a loss, so chances are, they're selling at at least break-even prices. And obviously, they're going to compare with other listings to have an idea for whether or not their items have appreciated in value before doing so.

How much did you manage to resell it for?

Unfortunately, I'm not an expert in superhero comics, so I wouldn't know heads or tails as to what series and issues are worth $$$. I'm assuming that, with those eBay lots, you managed to secure some that had key issues that made them worth more than your actual investment. I guess, with auctioned lots, the goal is to actually know what it is you're investing in. Maybe the average joe might think of those comics as $1 dollar bin unsold stock (because no seller in their right mind would liquidate key issues if they knew about them), but collectors would know that one or two of those issues are worth $50-100 a pop. Otherwise, the chance is extremely likely with a blindly purchased lot that it is precisely that: unsellable junk stock.

"The resurgence and return of a dying art form as a viable entertainment medium, precipitated by forced home arrest, unemployment and boredom, which led to a surge in demand and value and the seeking of a means to... relieve one's tension in more ways than one." Yeah, superhero comics definitely helped popularize comics books. Credit does need to be given to them for that. Otherwise, comics and TPBs would just be glorified newspaper strip compilations. Unless Japanese manga takes the world by storm instead of fully coloured comics, anyway. Definitely was not aware about this, but not surprised to find out, either. The skill of comic illustrators is very easily overlooked due to the comic scene itself not being seen as highly valuable by ordinary people. Considering that they are all full-colour, it's equivalent to painting 30+ pages of art per issue, per month. Anyone who is an artist or dabbles in art would know how daunting of a task that is.